Cubs turn 'W' into lifestyle clothing brand

The Cubs' Fly the W collection at the team store inside Wrigley Field.

A blue "W" on a white flag is one of the oldest symbols of Chicago Cubs pride. Now it's becoming a commercial boon at Wrigley Field.

It started ramping up last October, when the team dubbed "Fly the W" its postseason marketing slogan during an improbable run to the National League Championship Series.

That was magnified this month with streetlight pole banners featuring the tagline, a pre-playoff caravan around the Chicago area with owner Tom Ricketts promoting the campaign and a series of online videos showing how fans around Chicago are rallying behind the most popular letter in Wrigleyville these days.

Now the North Siders have taken it a step further: Turning the W into a lifestyle clothing line.

It debuted at the expanded Cubs team store inside Wrigley Field during Game 1 of the National League Division Series. With the retail division of Cubs concessionaire Levy Restaurants taking the lead in design, the Fly the W collection is designed to give fans a way to show off their uber-Cubs pride without sacrificing fashion.

With 17 pieces of clothing from T-shirts ($25) and sweatshirts ($89) to a hat ($35), zip-up hoodie ($70), an embroidered golf shirt ($60), a henley ($55) and even an infant onesie ($25), the line of apparel is touted as a limited-edition collection that can only be purchased at the ballpark during the 2016 playoffs. Some of the items specifically mention the 2016 postseason.

Photo

Danny Ecker

An embroidered pullover featuring the W logo costs $89.

"We wanted to create not a ton of items, but items that we thought would really resonate with the fans of Chicago that they could wear on a daily basis outside of the game day," said Levy Retail Senior Vice President Erin Jones. The collection "is around a moment in time, around heritage, around lifestyle; and we translated that to apparel in a way where it's not (for) that core fan wearing the traditional branded apparel but something a little more subtle, a little bit more lifestyle, that fills out an offering for a different consumer."

The W used in the collection is different from what fans are used to. Levy and the Cubs stepped away from the white background and solid blue letter in favor of a distressed pattern in the letter, a darker blue and a gray background.

Consider it a small example of a larger evolution happening at Wrigley Field, where Cubs ownership is transforming the ballpark and its surrounding area in the name of commercialism.

"It's not the same old stadium that you've seen before; and I think that's the same approach (the Cubs) were willing to take with the W," said Levy Executive Vice President of Strategy and Creative Alison Weber. "It's not the same old W that you've seen."

TRADEMARK PUSH

A resurgence on the field has been the catalyst for everything the Cubs and Levy are doing with the W. Building any campaign around the letter wouldn't have worked unless there were wins to talk about, and there have been a lot of them over the past two regular seasons.

That's also why the Cubs last year filed applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to drastically expand the team's ability to cash in on the W. The team has held a trademark commercial usage of the particular W image on a white fabric flag since 2006, but last year's applications were intended to give the team licensing rights to put the W on scores of new items from clothing and jewelry to clocks, golf club bags, poker chips and more.

On the clothing front, the Cubs ran into opposition from women's luxury apparel company the Worth Collection. The New York-based company, which claims a trademark on a W similar to the Cubs' W for its W by Worth line, rejected the Cubs application as likely to create confusion with the Worth Collection's clothing line. The Cubs' application is still pending.

In the meantime, the team is still using the W to squeeze some extra merchandise revenue out of its 2016 playoff run.

More from the new collection:

Photo

Danny Ecker

A sign promoting the Fly The W Collection in the new home plate mezzanine team store at Wrigley Field.